Battling the fair withdrawals

I am dreading this week.
It’s the week where Steele Countians will go without their prize possession, the Steele County Free Fair. While I am not native to this area, I quickly adopted the Steele County Fair as my fair 11 years ago when I took over ownership of this newspaper. It was love at first sight, and it has turned into a love fest for me ever since.
To make matters worse, my home fair, the McLeod County Fair in Hutchinson, should also be operating this week. It isn’t. Like all fairs across the state, COVID-19 has shut them down this year.
Over the years I have become a fair junkie. I love fairs, but not always for the reasons most people do. Most people come to the fair to get their fix of fair foods. Oh don’t get me wrong I love mini donuts, smoothies, gyros, malts, shave ice, Godfather’s pizza, taffy, pork chops and the list goes on.
But to me the fair is so much more than food. Going back to my childhood, I was involved in 4-H and showed animals and other projects throughout my 4-H days at the fair. I still remember cuddling with my favorite pig with tears in my eyes when it came to shipping it off to the market at the end of the fair.
And I also remember baking some cookies for the fair. I was so proud of those cookies that when it came time to have them judged, I got a little too excited, pulled them out of the container in between my lap as I was sitting with the car door open. Yes, you can guess what happened. The cookies went tumbling to the ground. Tears streamed from my face in horror. I think I’m still traumatized by that event today!
Back to the animal barn. I’ll never forget a different pig that had a mind of its own and became ornery to put it mildly on show day. The pig would not cooperate with me and barged his way under the wooden bleachers, which sent people scrambling for cover. I was pretty young and in distress with not knowing how to handle an out of control pig. Once again, the tears came flowing, but thankfully I had my parents there to comfort me and help regain my composure.
In my later years, the fair has become all about people. Since 2010, I have met some awesome fair people in Steele County. The fair board and fair staff are some of the best people I know. They are so committed to making Steele County the best fair in Minnesota. I hope area residents realize how fortunate they are to have such a team putting together a first-rate fair.
I enjoy connecting with friends and acquaintances. During the Steele fair, I love having our booth for the newspaper where I get a chance to meet many of our readers in person. It’s one thing to connect with readers through the printed word in the newspaper, but it’s another to see them face-to-face. I will miss all of you this year, but don’t despair we still have a fair subscription special for you to enjoy. Check it out in the fair section.
I also love covering the fair from young people to the golden oldies. It’s fun to see young 4-Hers competing with their projects. It brings me back to my childhood years. By the way, the 4-H program is the greatest youth program out there so I applaud all those young people for their efforts. And then there’s the opposite end of life. A few years ago I featured a 94-year-old lady who proudly shared her story of winning grand champion with her baking. I enjoy bringing our readers great human-interest stories. It’s the very essence of a community newspaper.
As I share all these memories of fairs gone by, it makes me sad as the realization sets in there is no fair this year to create new memories. No grand champions, no flag raising ceremony, no dairy malts, no 4-Hers excited about their projects, no entertainment and no livestock shows to take in. It just won’t be the same. But then again what has been this year.
If I look like dread has taken over my life, at least you know it’s me going in hot pursuit of battling the fair withdrawals.